


sing the blues (and swallow them too)

by citadelofswords



Category: EOS 10 (Podcast)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, i guess?, i love parentheses no one should be surprised about this, in which a cat brings them together pretty much, this certainly is Something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 02:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8127019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citadelofswords/pseuds/citadelofswords
Summary: Akmazian doesn't call Ryan Dalias by his first name on principle, you understand. It has nothing to do with how it makes him feel, like it's a secret he isn't supposed to know. It's all about maintaining appearances. And, okay, maybe it has something to do with the absolutely smug look Ryan wears when he does. It makes Akmazian twitch. It makes Akmazian want to do something stupid.It's just. Sometimes. Sometimes, he slips. That's all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what this is I just love these two assholes so much omg
> 
> title from Hum Hallelujah by Fall Out Boy

1.

They’re six hours into the trip to Io on the Silent Storm. They’ve spent the better part of the first three hours fighting, or possibly flirting, Akmazian can’t be sure, but after Ryan almost knocked him unconscious when one of their fights got physical, he’s pretty much given up on either.

(Ryan had looked at him with a cold expression and said “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you,” and Akmazian had agreed. He might have been skinny, but holy hells he could pack a punch.)

But since they’ve called the truce, there has been an uneasy silence as Ryan tries to get some paperwork done and Akmazian tries to hunt down another lead, even as they move further and further from EOS 10 and the Adrarian sector.

That, of course, becomes Akmazian screwing around with the controls of the ship, hardwiring some of the buttons into noisemakers that make loud groaning trombone noises. Ryan, in annoyance, periodically throws small crackers at him every time he tries to compose a funny little jingle.

It’s in a quiet moment between an annoying noise and a cracker hitting him in the face that he realizes he has a full-blown real life puppycrush on Ryan Dalias and. Well. Shit. He has to take a walk down to the engine room to recover from that one.

Two hours, one stubbed toe, and four bandaged fingers later Akmazian returns to the cockpit to find Ryan fast asleep in the chair, neck curled on his knees in a very uncomfortable position that he will not appreciate once he wakes up. Akmazian hesitates for five full seconds (a new record) before very gently picking Ryan up and carrying him to a bunk.

And if it’s the bunk with the softest weighted blanket Akmazian keeps on him at all times, well, that was totally a coincidence. He’s got a reputation to uphold, after all.

 

Ryan is woken by humming and buttons being tapped to a beat. He is no longer where he fell asleep in the copilot’s seat of the Silent Storm, and he is clutching onto a grey blanket that feels like it has sand stitched into the edging. 

When he enters the cockpit, flopping back in the copilot’s seat, Akmazian turns to him with a shit-eating grin and presses hard on one of the buttons. Ryan winces at the bleating that emerges from the console, a noise that it most certainly is not supposed to make.

“You know, I’m so grateful for the fact that I woke up without a neckache that I won’t even break all of your fingers for that.”

“Don’t worry, the engine took care of broken fingers for you.” Akmazian holds up his hands. Ryan reaches forwards and takes one of them in his own without even thinking about it, unwrapping the bandages to see for himself.

“Not broken,” he says. “Just bruised.”

When he looks up, Akmazian is faintly pink, and Ryan carefully rewraps the bandages and lets go of his hands.

“Thank you, by the way,” Ryan says, since he forgot earlier. Akmazian raises an eyebrow. “For doing this. For taking me to Io. For helping Levi, however little good it might actually do.”

Akmazian chuckles. “Anytime, Ryan.” He turns back to the ship’s controls, seemingly oblivious to how startled Ryan is. “We’re still another four hours out, now you mention it.”

“You called me Ryan.” Ryan says, because he can’t quite grasp it. Akmazian starts.

“Did not.”

“Don’t be a child, you did too. Just now.”

“Well—,”

“It’s not like I mind if you do, it’s my name. I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I’m not planning on making a habit of it.”

“Well, it’s not like you’re going to be around EOS 10 long enough for it to become a habit.”

“Admit it, you’d miss me if I was gone.”

“Mm, intergalactic terrorist secretly living in the cargo bay who I can’t turn in or cargo bay only inhabited by dog sized rats? That’s _such a difficult choice_.”

“You’d choose the rats over me? I’m _wounded_.”

“You will be once I’m done with you.” 

(Final tally of the number of fistfights they get into over the course of the day-long journey to Io: six.)

 

* * *

2.

When Ryan gets back, Jane is going to hug him so tightly, and then punch him for worrying her, and then punch him again for leaving her with a terrified Akmazian. They’d almost ended up sedating him, but then Levi managed to convince the Interface to let him into Ryan’s quarters so he’d been able to spend a couple of much needed hours with Morpheus before returning to pace a hole into the surgery floor.

They get a notification that the crisis is over and the wounded are headed their way and they all spring into action, Drs. Urvidian and Osolong prepping to treat whatever happens to come their way and Jane shoving Levi out the door and Akmazian into a back room before returning to the surgery.

Ryan comes through the door twenty minutes after the last of the wounded trickles in, arms wrapped around his midsection, breathing funny. He looks surprisingly calm for someone who was in the middle of a twenty hour hostage crisis with absolutely nothing to help any wounded people with.

“Ribs,” he manages, as Jane goes to support him.

“We’ve got someone who is very worried about you, Doctor Dalias,” she says, and Ryan’s confused look clears to tiredness as she leads him towards the back room. 

He stops for a moment to catch his breath in the doorframe as Jane goes towards the sedatives, and in that moment Akmazian looks up. “Ryan,” he breathes, and Jane startles so badly she almost drops the hypo in her hands. Ryan, however, doesn’t even bat an eye, and even lets Akmazian catch him as he falls.

“Breaking out the first names again, are we?” he says, his laugh turning into a cough.

“You scared the ever-lovin’ shit out of me,” Akmazian said. “I have half a mind to never let you out of my sight again.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that cat you got me has a temper to rival your ego,” Ryan teases, and winces as Akmazian helps him stand. “Watch the ribs, watch the—,”

“I may not be a doctor, darlin’, but I’m not stupid either,”

“Wow, first names, now pet names, what next, you going to bring me the paperwork for official joint custody of our cat?”

“Are you going to fill it out if I do?”

“Is that a dare?”

“Sure, Doc.”

Jane turns around. “Would you two quit it so I can set Ryan’s ribs?”

Akmazian raises one eyebrow, but helps Ryan to sit on one of the tables.

“Don’t leave,” Ryan says, so quietly Jane only barely hears it, and Akmazian smiles at him, something soft Jane’s never seen before.

“All right,” he replies, and Ryan’s lips quirk up into a smile just as Jane administers the sedative.

 

* * *

 

(“When did Ryan start letting Akmazian call him by his first name?” Jane asks Levi. Levi drops a soufflé pan.

“Dr. Dalias let Akmazian call him by his first name?” he asks.

Well, at least Jane isn’t alone in her never-ending confusion.)

 

* * *

 

Akmazian doesn't call Ryan Dalias by his first name on _principle_ , you understand. It has nothing to do with how it makes him feel, like it's a secret he isn't supposed to know. It's all about maintaining appearances. And, okay, maybe it has something to do with the absolutely smug look Ryan wears when he does. It makes Akmazian twitch. It makes Akmazian want to do something stupid.

It's just. Sometimes. Sometimes, he _slips_. That's all.

 

* * *

 

3.

The alarm at Ryan’s door sounds.

“Did you bring the paperwork?” Ryan asks. “Because if you didn’t, you don’t get visitation rights.”

There is a chuckle from the other side. “Do I get to hold the cat while you fill it out?” 

“He’s been tetchy today, but sure.”

The door slides open and there stands Akmazian, who sweeps his Robin Hood cloak off as the door shuts behind him. “Where is the kitten?”

“Under the bed, probably. You can sit on it, I don’t mind.”

“Mm, the privilege to sit on your bed. I am touched.” Akmazian barely has to search before Morpheus steps into view, rubbing his little cat head underneath Akmazian’s chin. When Akmazian awkwardly stumbles up to sit gingerly on the edge of the bed, Morpheus settles onto his lap with a graceful stretch and a couple of steps of tiny cat paws on his thighs. For a moment, Akmazian thinks he catches a look of fondness on Ryan’s face, but when he glances up to inspect it further it has dissolved into neutrality.

They sit in silence for a while before Ryan sits up.

“Hey, you know we won’t be able to file this until this whole ‘alleged terrorist’ thing blows over, right?”

“What?”

“I didn’t even think about that when you dared me to do this.”

Akmazian’s jaw opens and closes a couple of times. Ryan merely raises an eyebrow. Finally, Akmazian admits, “I didn’t think you’d actually follow through with it.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I didn’t think you wanted to.”

“I mean, it seems a little silly and… _formal_ , but I don’t mind.”

“… Really?”

“Yeah. But since I can’t follow through on this dare right now, maybe you should dare me to do something else.”

This… this teasing, their flirting, now this is familiar ground. Akmazian knows how to do this part. “That’s a dangerous thing to say.”

“Oh yeah?” Ryan’s mouth quirks into a teasing smile.

“I could make you do anything right now.”

“Mmm.”

“I could make you tapdance on the observation deck. I could make you do a couple laps in the pool naked as the day you’re born.” 

“You could do that.”

“What are you thinking right now?”

“You could dare me to kiss you.”

Akmazian stops breathing. “ _Ryan_.”

“And before you say you don’t think I’d follow through with it, I’ll tell you, try me.”

Ryan stands up. Akmazian barely remembers to move the cat before he does the same.

“… I dare you to kiss me.” The distance is closing between them. Akmazian makes a split-second decision to give Ryan one last out; one last chance to take a step back. “There’s just one catch, darlin’.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“You have to kiss me like you mean it.”

“That,” Ryan says, “isn’t going to be as hard as you think.”

“Then why don’t you just do it?” Akmazian asks, and Ryan rolls his eyes and pulls Akmazian to him until there’s no space left between the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> [find me on the tumblr](http://citadelofswords.tumblr.com/ask) and send me some prompts or something so this doesn't happen again


End file.
